The Southern African Development Community and the Fight against HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa

Since its creation in 1992, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has been fostering development, democracy and military security in Southern Africa. During the last two decades, SADC has been the subject of extensive academic literature. This has mainly focused on the role the organization has played in the promotion of economic and trade integration, security cooperation, democracy and the respect for human rights in Southern Africa. Little attention has been devoted to the analysis of the social vision and programmes of SADC. This essay has two related objectives. Firstly, it aims to fill the gap in the academic literature on regionalism in Southern Africa, by focusing on SADC collective efforts aimed at fighting HIV/AIDS in the region. Secondly, this essay intends to overcome the sectoral approach that, with few exceptions, has prevailed in the literature on SADC. This essay presents the results of a field research carried out in early 2011 in Botswana and concludes that n spite of the official rhetoric on the mutual benefits of regional market integration, the social and economic costs of trade liberalization risk undermining not only the poverty reduction strategies that the SADC member states are implementing at the national level, but also - and paradoxically - the fight against HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa.